Transport Bosses to Test Three or Four Day Season Tickets for Part-Time Workers

Some rare good news for aggressively-milked commuters has come out of the Liberal Democrat autumn party conference, with a Transport minister announcing plans to allow part-time workers to join in on the discounted rail season ticket fun.

At the moment, you pay for your season ticket and that's it. If you work five days a week you save money, but what of the new wave of part-time workers who only work three or four days a week? According to Transport minister Norman Baker, they'll be covered under a new pilot scheme set to launch next year on one (as yet undecided) commuter line into London. If it works, it may be rolled out nationwide.

Baker also suggested there might be a softening of the transition from off-peak to peak times for commuters as well, perhaps introducing a new pricing tier for people who start work slightly earlier or later than usual. It'd be a bit cheaper, and by encouraging more flexible working patterns the strain on our creaking rail network may be reduced. [Standard]